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Released by: Full Moon Entertainment
Released on: September 18, 2012.
Director: Dave Allen
Cast: Greg Webb, Steve Welles, Collin Bernsen
Year: 1991
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The Movie:
The first of many sequels in the series, Puppet Master II, directed by the late Dave Allen and written by series creator Charles Band, is a pretty worthy follow up to the original film in more ways than one. It continues the storyline in interesting ways and introduces some new elements and characters into the Puppet Master universe that go a long way towards making this more than just a rehash of the earlier film.
The film starts off with a great scene in which the puppets dig up the grave of their creator, Andre Toulon (Steve Welles), who is buried behind the Bodega Bay Hotel that was the key location of the first movie. They pour some green liquid into the hole and apparently he's been reanimated when his arm thrusts up! From there, we cut to the hotel where a team of paranormal investigator types made up of sister and brother Carolyn (Elizabeth Maclellan) and Patrick (Gregory Webb), slutty girl Wanda (Charlie Spradling), and goofy guy Lance (Jeff Weston) are getting ready to do some research at the hotel where they meet up with a psychic named Camille (Nita Talbot). It seems that the previous owner of the hotel was murdered in an unusual fashion - her brains were pulled out through her nose, and someone wants to know why.
As the team explore the hotel, the puppets get up to their old tricks and start knocking them off one by one, in increasingly gruesome ways. Meanwhile, Toulon is roaming the area, his face wrapped up completely in bandages and claiming to be a man named Enriquee Chanee, the actual owner of the property. Toulon quickly falls for Carolyn, who reminds him of his deceased wife, just as Mike (Collin Bernsen), Camille's son, shows up to try and figure out what happened to his mother - but he too starts to fall for Carolyn. Much to Toulon's disgust, Carolyn reciprocates Mike's feelings and the two hit it off, but unfortunately for everyone in the hotel, Toulon and his puppets need a fluid that can only be found in the human brain to survive, and it's about time they had their dose. With a new puppet named Torch, who looks like a Nazi SS trooper with a flamethrower built into his hand, on the prowl, it's harvest time.
This one hits the ground running and not only moves at a much faster pace than the first movie did but features more puppet mayhem as well. On top of that we get a fun cameo from none other than George 'Buck Flower' and a bit of bonus nudity from one of the more comely female cast members. A few good kill scenes offer ample opportunity for some fun gore effects while the puppets, who get a lot more screen time here, seem quite skilled at finding increasingly bizarre ways to off their prey. While the acting might not be anything to write home about, the movie offers up enough style, interesting effects and schlocky thrills to make this a worthy follow up. It also does decent things with the story, elaborating on what happens to Toulon and his creations and while the recycled music could have been given some new life, this is a well made low budget film with some nice atmosphere, decent camerawork and some inspired and creative carnage.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The first Puppet Master didn't look amazing on Blu-ray, though it did offer a noticeable upgrade over the DVD release. This sequel though? Much better. There's a lot of really nice detail here and color reproduction is pretty much perfect. Black levels are strong and there are no problems with noise reduction, the film grain is left intact. There isn't any serious print damage, just a few tiny specks here and there, while skin tones look nice and natural. Close up shots look very good, texture is impressive and all in all this AVC encoded 1080p 1.78.1 widescreen transfer is a very big upgrade over the previous DVD release.
Audio options are provided in your choice of English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound or Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo. While the 5.1 mix does some nice things with the score and with some effects work, the foley effects sound very thin and hollow here and the levels aren't quite as consistent. As such, the 2.0 track sounds more natural and fits the movie better, offering better levels, stronger effects and cleaner dialogue. No alternate language options or subtitles of any kind are provided.
The best extra on the disc is a full length commentary track with Full Moon Entertainment president Charles Band, who speaks about how and why this sequel to the first film came to be and what it was like bringing it to fruition. He speaks very fondly about the film's director, Dave Allen, and how he was taken very early in life by cancer, and also discusses in quite a bit of detail the film's puppet effects, sets and locations. Band's got quite a bit to say about this movie and the bulk of it is genuinely interesting, making for a nice crash course in what the early were like for Full Moon and its roster of talent.
Also of interesting to fans is the twenty-minute Videozone featurette in which Band gives fans the run down on the history of Puppet Master II before going on to hype up other upcoming Full Moon projects. This was originally included with the VHS release of the film and it'll definitely provide a nice nostalgia rush to those of us who remember it and similar Videozone offerings from the company. Rounding out the extras are an optional video introduction to the movie from Charles Band, a highlight reel featuring the movie's kill scenes, a vintage television commercial advertising a line of Full Moon action figures, a trailer for the feature and trailers for a few other Full Moon releases.
The Final Word:
Aside from the lack of lossless audio, this is otherwise a really nice disc from Full Moon offering up a really enjoyable sequel with a great transfer and some very cool extras as well. It's nice to see the studio putting this sort of effort into their flagship franchise, as in this case it really made Puppet Master II a much more enjoyable viewing experience than it ever has been before.
